half a tree and leaf velcro

here is a picture of the neighbors diseased, half dead apple tree. for some reason, in the 12 years i've lived here, he hasnt seen fit to cut it down. the entire right half of the tree is dead and gone. the tree has fireblight. it could spread to my pear trees. with the right half of the tree missing, the tree tilts farther and farther to the left every year. maybe he's waiting for it to fall over on its own?


first tray of stuff in the greenhouse!


bringing the outdoors inside! puppys fur is like velcro.


i gave up long ago wondering how all the leaf bits kept getting in the house. they simply hitch a ride in on the dogs.


velcro i tell you.


and i just chased puppy thru the house cackling and yelling "i'll get you my pretty, and your little toto too!" i gave him a bone earlier, a rawhide roll. and sometimes he likes to play keep-away with it. he'll carry it up to me, and then turn and want me to chase him. so i gave in and chased him around and around and around the house. its still raining outside and he's a bit restless. but he's so silly about it he just makes me laugh. and laughing while running turns into cackling. and cackling while chasing apparently turns me into the wicked witch of the west.

canning applesauce

we didnt have to go to the apple orchard this year because the grocery store actually had paula reds! they're excellent sauce apples.

after peeling and coring and slicing up, then add a small amount of water and cook down.


cores and peels for my compost bin


a fan is necessary canning equipment. it gets hot!


sterilize the jars and rings


after cooking the apples to softness, we use a stick blender to smooth it out.


yummy yummy applesauce


filling the jars. we used some jelly jars this time for 'single serve' portions.


put the lids and rings on


load up the canner with jars




after processing, use the jar lifter to remove the hot hot jars from the canner


mmm, homemade applesauce. nothing but apples.


moms pantry. there is salsa, cherries, pears, peaches, jelly, and applesauce on those shelves, along with the few remaining empty jars. the pickles are kept in another cupboard. and i have a few jars of everything at my house too.


we started with 16 apples (7 lbs at 1.39 a lb, $9.68). they were pretty large sized apples. and as you can see from the picture, they filled the stock pot up good.

paula reds are soft apples, and being as soft as they are, i had trouble running them thru the apple peeler/corer. three times the prongs you stick the apple onto managed to spin around until they were free thru the apple. had to peel and slice the rest of those three apples by hand. they taste great though.

we filled 8 jars. 2 were pints, one was almost a pint, and the other 5 were half-pint jelly jars for single servings.

canning applesauce

mom took me to apple jacks orchard out in delano. we got two pecks of paula reds for applesauce making, plus a peck of honeycrisp and a peck of sweetango for eating. those are my two all time favorite eating apples. they're both very crisp, sweet apples. they have a lovely crunch to them.


the paula reds were seconds, but they hadnt bagged them up in the clear bags yet. instead they just grabbed the regular paper bags for us since they didnt have any other bags out yet. two pecks of paula red seconds cost $18 seconds mean they're picked off the ground, not the tree. there are more likely to be smaller, or have defects, but they are just as many that have nothing wrong with them. fine for sauce making when they're going to be peeled and cored and sliced up and any defects are easily cut away.


all bags were one peck. had some trouble focusing my camera today i guess.


canning setup today is the canner, the stock pot to cook the apples down, and the little saucepan for sterilizing the lids.


wash up some jars (bonus watermelon i grew in my garden in the background)


the apples are on the small side


we use an old fashioned hand crank apple peeler/corer/slicer. makes quick work of the apples.


you just smack the apple on as straight as you can manage, crank it down, and your apple comes out all nicely sliced up, peeled, and the core stays behind.


peeled/sliced/cored apples go into a bowl of water with lemon juice to prevent browning. i ran the peeler. mom cut the ends off, broke the sliced apples into little chunks, and carved out the cores on the ones i put on crooked. its not always easy getting them on the peeler straight.


first stock pot full of apples


now the fun begins! we use a stick blender to puree the cooked down apples into sauce


going


going


gone! ladle into jars


fill the jars. add the lids and rings. run thru the canner.


unload the canner


do it all again and fill the stockpot a second time


fill the canner again


save the scraps for composting


and voila! applesauce!


of those two pecks of paula red seconds, we saved out about 10 apples for making applecrisp.
the first stock pot full cooked down to be 13 cups, or fill 5 jars
the second stock pot full cooked down to be 10 cups, or fill 4 jars.
for a total of 8 pints plus one odd size jar. the odd size jar is an atlass mason jar that is somewhere between a pint and a quart.

it took us two and a half hours.

applesauce

a few weeks back me and my mom made applesauce.

first we went to the orchard and got apples.


i overslept so we got a late start, which meant by the time we got there tons and tons of people and their kids were there. it was ridiculously crowded and loud. we suggested to each other that perhaps next year we'd see if we could come during the week instead of on the weekend. mom suggested that next time we should bring our reusable tote bags because the plastic bag handles and the paper bag handles really cut into our hands during the long trek back out to the car.

we got 1 peck of paula reds that we used in the applesauce. we got honeycrisp and ginger gold to eat, knowing we liked them both. and we tried some wealthy apples, but they're pretty tart and kinda mealy. there were no paula reds in the 'seconds' display, and there were no sweet 16s out yet, we were only a day early for those according to their chart. and despite their website saying they had sweet tango apples, they did not.

the paula reds


the apples sit in a bowl of water and lemon juice to prevent browning after being run thru the apple peeler/corer/slicer thing while they wait their turn to be cut up further.


cut up and starting to cook


peels and cores for my compost bin


the apples cooking down under medium to medium low heat (stir frequently!)


my moms new toy she got for xmas last year. a heavy duty stick blender thing where the blade part detaches for easy cleaning.


sharp! do not touch!


it was fun to use and made quick work of the soft apples. much much quicker and less painful than mashing by hand with a potato masher.


did i mention it was fun to use?


filler up! the funnel comes in extremely handy.


putting the lids on


put the jars in the canner basket


and lower the basket into the water


figured out that putting a cookie sheet in between layers of towels helps protect the table from the heat better than juts the towels alone


ta da!


1 peck of paula reds made 7 pts of applesauce. the sauce is gorgeous, light colored, and delicious. the stick blender worked awesome and we'll never go back to the potato masher.